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Friday, July 11, 2014

The Huge Roses: Chapter Five, part four

American nurse Tory Bird, visiting Amsterdam with her
sister Jane, meets Dr. Maximilan van den Nie whilst giving first aid to
an injured English tourist. After a lovely weekend, Tory returns home
to the United States, daydreaming of the handsome Dutchman. To her
surprise, Max arrives in Tory's New Hampshire village a few weeks later!

THE HUGE ROSES (working title)
copyright 2014 by Betty van den Betsy; not for reprint or publication without permission

The next day, she kept her
appointment to pick up Titus, driving up the hill to Josh and Sheila’s with a
freshly-washed cat bed on the passenger seat.It was just 6:00, since she guessed the household would stick to later,
more European mealtimes.It seemed she
was right; Jaap answered the doorbell wearing a clean white apron and welcomed
her in, explaining that he’d just put a cauliflower to braise for dinner.“Well, then,” Tory offered, “I’ll just grab
Titus and go.”

“A drink first?” Jaap
suggested.“That might give the beast a
chance to accustom himself to his new bed.I thought you might be interested in the kitchen here, and could perhaps
advise me as to one or two things that are unfamiliar.”

“Oh, of course,” she agreed, and
walked with him to the kitchen.Given a
choice of cocktail or mocktail, she picked the non-alcoholic one, and was
rewarded with a tall, iced elderflower concoction that was light and
delicious.Jaap told her he’d brought
the cordial syrup with him from the Netherlands, wisely not trusting to find it
in rural New Hampshire.“Although I
think it’s quite popular in restaurants, now, so you’d probably be able to get
it in Boston, and maybe someplace like Walpole,” Tory mused.

Jaap mentioned Thanksgiving, and Tory
suggested he might like to arrive an hour or two before the 4:00pm dinner
time.She got the impression he would
enjoy being part of the preparations for the big meal.Jaap agreed with pleasure, and asked whether
he might bring anything to add to the table.They went through the various traditional menu items, and settled on
salad as his contribution.It wasn’t an
essential element of the meal, Tory reflected, but it was nice to add some
color to the largely-beige dinner, plus salad traveled well and no one at her
house ever seemed to remember it or have time to throw one together.

“Mr. Max is a great one for
vegetables,” Jaap informed her.“He’s
not particular at mealtimes, but he does prefer to emphasize nutrition over
trends and luxuries.Now Mrs. Winton,
who cared for the children when they were little, she seemed to think bread and
butter, porridge and potatoes were all children needed to grow strong.”

“Very English of her,” Tory
commented.

“Rather Dutch, as well,” her
companion said mournfully.“But we had
Bep in the kitchen, and she watching cookery shows, and took courses at the –
you might say town center, I think – and taught her niece, Sitska, who’s the
cook now, that we ought to have greens and citrus and spices and all the rest,
not just this stodge and fat.So we eat
very well indeed at home.”

“Mr. Max, also,” he said.“You
know he goes to that area every year or two, as part of Mediciens Sans
Frontieres.You know that company?He has always been a great donor to
charity.His mother the same, and his
father in his day as well.”

“I didn’t know about that,” Tory informed him, impressed.“We call it Doctors Without Borders, and my
sister spent two years with them, in Uganda, when she finished med school.Medical school.”

“He has a program for club feet,” Jaap elaborated.“He is very generous.He was since he was a little boy, taking care
of his sisters, and standing up for the scholarship children at school.I remember he came home once with his shirt
torn, and a cut lip, and asked me to help him tidy himself before he went in to
his mother.‘Fighting is not the right
way, Jaap,’ he said to me, ‘but when I saw them bullying Rafik, I had to help
him.Another time, I shall be there in time
to be sure no one starts anything.’He
was twelve, maybe eleven.”

Jaap paused to contemplate the memory of a young Mr. Max, and Tory tried
to imagine him as he’d been then.Even
allowing for Jaap’s prejudice, she could believe he’d been special from an
early age.

“There have always been rescue dogs, cats, once a donkey at the house
in Friesland,” Jaap spoke again.Tory
checked the time, suddenly guilty.“Speaking of dogs,” she said, “I’ve really got to get home to mine.Titus seems content in his bed, so I’ll just
carry him out that way.”

Of course, Jaap insisted on seeing her to her car, holding doors and
closing them again, and assuring her he looked forward to seeing Titus and her,
and meeting the rest of the clan, in three days.She smiled and waved and drove away, glancing
down to ensure the cat was still settled.He was.“I love donkeys,” she
remarked to him.The handsome calico
readied himself for a snooze, and evinced no opinion.

10 comments:

"Jaap is a courting on behalf of our RDD" - what a lovely way of putting it. It is usually the family members or retainers who fill in the blanks for us and tell us - well, actually they tell the heroine - a bit more about the hero.

This episode reminds me of Sister Peters in Amsterdam. Mijnheer de Wit when asked about it during a Dutch lesson, told Adelaide about why Professor Coenraad Ven Essens wore glasses. Remember Coenraad was almost blind in one eye, and Adalaide always worked on his good side so he could see her. His eye was injured when he was knocked about by soldiers as they shot his father and arrested his mother for helping the father's Jewish patients to escape after 'the Occupation' of Holland in WWII. After that, the Tweedles cared for him and his sisters.

It was quite a long passage--a couple of pages--but only one of the many examples in the Betty's books where the faithful family friend shares information about the RDD's bravery or long record of caring for those in less fortunate circumstances. It might be a nanny, or the butler, or the cook, or the gardener, or even the mother. There's always someone who lifts the veil to allow us to see that there's a person beyond the RDD--the dedicated professional, the man about town, the lover of fast cars. That is, the man who deserves to be loved because in the end, he's just a man.

I just found this and am loooooving it! I just wish I'd have found the story a bit later, because I'm sad that I have to wait for the next installment! I love all the Bettyisms, and I am feeling so nostalgic reading this (in a good wonderful way).